We assessed the prevalence of menstrual migraine and
its restrictions on daily activities in a representative Dutch
population sample of 1181 Dutch women, aged 13 to 55 years.
Further, we evaluated the potential role of oral contraceptives,
and how menstrual migraine is treated. More than half suffered
from menstrual complaints, a substantial proportion reported
headache or migraine as a frequent problem. Use of oral
contraceptives seemed to reduce the occurrence of menstrual
complaints, but not the occurrence of headache and migraine.
In our study, the prevalence of menstrual migraine (3%) is
lower than in the literature, most probably because we did
not use a selected group of patients but a population-based
sample of ordinary women. It was confirmed that attacks of
menstrual migraine are more severe, of longer duration, and
more resistant to treatment than migraine attacks at other
times of the month.